The Beast Must Die

One of the good things about the AMC channel is the later you watch it, the weirder the movies get. This one came on at about 1:30 in the morning, and as soon as the creepy narration announced "This is a detective story... where YOU are the detective," I knew I was in for something cool. The narration is followed by an offbeat opening where a black guy (dressed in all black) is running through the woods being chased by a bunch of military types, against a jazz soundtrack. Turns out he's testing out his new security system, and sure enough, there's no way to avoid getting caught on these premises.

After the weird opening, the movie settles down into a pretty straightforward plot. It's really a combination of 'The Most Dangerous Game' and 'Ten Little Indians' (the "guess the culprit" gimmick is practically stolen from the latter movie). A wealthy hunter has gathered a group of guests, one of whom is a werewolf, in order to hunt the ultimate game. But finding out who the werewolf is turns out to be trickier than expected...

The cast is actually quite impressive, and odds are you'll be less interested in figuring out who the werewolf is than figuring out where you've seen all these people before (I'm still racking my brain on Anton Diffring). Of course, every movie like this has at least one unintentionally funny part, and in this one it's Peter Cushing's Dr. Lundgren, the Werewolf Expert. Cushing is a fine actor, but he almost becomes a running joke here, because every time someone asks him about werewolves he goes off on this long spiel describing werewolves in scientific detail that must be heard to be believed. Thanks to this movie, I now know that lycanthropy is caused by a defect in the lymphatic system, and that silver can't harm a werewolf unless there's pollen in the air (?), etc.

This a B-movie, for sure, but a pretty good one. It's well done and suspenseful, and it will keep you interested until the very end. Very much worth watching. 8/10 stars.

This low-budget horror film had an innovative concept, mixing rather successfully a traditional Agatha Christie-type murder mystery with a "gory" werewolf flick; the result does hold your attention but is marred by wooden acting (except for the excellent Peter Cushing) and a few overextended chase scenes. As another reviewer noted, no real clues are given to us to help us figure out the identity of the werewolf, so it's strictly a matter a guessing, but there is some fun in the game... (**1/2)

what a great idea. badly executed. the best big game hunter in the world tries to kill a werewolf. seems to me like he was one of the worst shots, let alone one of the worst hunters in the world. not once did he use his skills, relying on everyone else around him to do the work for him, and he could just walk in for the kill. wheres the honour in killing your foe with a machine gun? i sat and watched as a film i'd wanted to see went plodding along until the end(though the ending was quite good). a weak film with some 'jazzy' music. what would terence fisher have done with it? made it fun at least. for once, a remake might do this idea justice. and make it scary this time, darnit!

Others commenting here seem to have been distracted by the "game" aspect of the movie, which was, of course, a gimmick added after the movie was finished.

Although the story really required a larger budget, this well-cast, intelligent horror thriller is well worth watching. The story is reasonably suspenseful, the direction good enough most of the time, and it is unusual in depicting the central villain as someone who LOVES being a werewolf. It's based on a good novel, which was given reasonably respectful treatment.

This movie is OLD, and not because it came out the month after I was born. Peter Cushing actually ran in this movie!

This plot isn't new - as it's been used since in The Incredible Hulk series and most famously in John Carpenter's The Thing, but it's still entertaining. Several guests are invited to a rich hunter's secluded home and almost immediately he springs his motives: One of the guests is a werewolf and the Host intends to make sure, by the third Moonlit night...the Beast Must Die!

But, whodunnit? I'm sorry, I meant, who is it? Don't worry about answering - there's an actual "Werewolf Break" for you to think about your answer. You think I'm joking?

(And, I still totally guessed wrong!)

I saw this as a kid and while I do recall liking it, I haven't seen it since. I placed it in one of my October Lineups one year as I select as rare to me horror movies for each day of October. This WAS available for streaming when I made my October list that year, but by the time October rolled around, it vanished. Recently, one of my favorite YouTubers covered this movie, so I decided to search for it again as it's been probably 40 years since I've seen it and thankfully, it returned!

Well, before I thank the stars, it was just alright. Mercifully, while it feels slow at times and oh-boy that 70s disco soundtrack is annoying, it's only 87 minutes. And I never cared for the werewolf movies where they turn into dogs. The standup, menacing kinds like in The Howling is more my jam.

It has a good premise, I've always loved the poster and it contained some surprisingly decent actors portraying some interesting characters. Plus, it has a wonderful and suspenseful climax. It gets a recommendation out of me.

Now that it's fresh in my head, I'll go watch Fanboy's review of this on YouTube. And sometime soon, I just gotta, ah-hem, track down the other Werewolf movie I recall seeing only as a little kid: The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.

***

Final Thoughts: So, this movie got me thinking and I had to consult my lawyer friend. If this man brings people to his secluded home, makes sure they stay there while he tries to pinpoint the werewolf and the beast starts making everyone else die...isn't that Host an accessory to murder after the fact? And I WAS RIGHT!

Of course, asking a real lawyer such a bizarre question might have lost my credibility for further legal advice, so I may need to keep myself out of trouble for a while.